The council has approved 13 flats at Douglas House, 40 London Road, Reigate, four months after clearing 37 there. No neighbour commented. Checked 5 November.

An office building in the middle of Reigate has been cleared for another round of flats. Reigate and Banstead Borough Council approved 13 apartments at Douglas House, 40 London Road, on Wednesday 4 November.

This comes less than four months after it approved 37 apartments in the same building. If the two approvals add together, that is 50 homes. The register does not say whether they do.

The planning register still files the address under the name “Kimberley Clark Europe”. An energy certificate lists Kimberly Clark Europe Ltd there as an office occupier, and a sale listing has since described Douglas House as a vacant town centre office.

How it got here

The owner has made three applications for flats this year:

Reference What it asked for Outcome Decision date
26/00558/PAP3MA 37 apartments Refused 27 May
26/00923/PAP3MA 37 apartments Approved 15 July
26/01480/PAP3MA 13 apartments Approved 4 November

The work looks to be moving. Details on asbestos in the building, required by a condition of the 37-flat approval, reached the council on 22 October. New windows and other changes at lower ground floor level were approved on 11 September.

The applicant is Watercastle Douglas Ltd, a property company set up in February 2026 with a registered office in north London.

An earlier plan has not gone away on paper. A different applicant asked in 2023 to knock the building down and replace it with new offices. The register still shows that application as awaiting a decision.

Why councillors did not vote

These applications use a fast-track route called prior approval. National rules let a building in commercial use become homes without full planning permission.

The council can only look at a short list of matters, which include:

  • transport and safe access to the site
  • contamination and flood risk
  • noise from nearby commercial premises
  • natural light in every habitable room

Council officers took the decision, the register shows. It went nowhere near the Planning Committee.

Twenty neighbours were consulted on the 13 flats. None commented.

What we could not find out

The register’s public tabs do not say:

  • why the first application was refused
  • which floors the 13 flats are on, or how big any of the flats will be
  • whether the 13 are in addition to the 37
  • when building work starts

Those answers should be in the plans and decision notices. They sit in a document portal that we could not open on 5 November.

What it means for you

Douglas House is inside Reigate’s town centre boundary. Dozens of new homes there would mean more people living in the town centre and less office space.

If you live nearby, you can search any application on the council’s register by address.